Automatic emergency air-brake-operating device for railways.



No. 803,467. IATBNTED OCT. 31, 1905.

J. P. BIRMINGHAM. AUTOMATIC EMERGENGY AIR BRAKE OPERATING DEVICE FOR. RAILWAYS.

APPLIOATION FILED JULY 31.1905.

4 auwuvoc W'ytnuna UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN P. BIRMINGHAM, OF LEXINGTON, VIRGINIA, ASSIGNOR TO ROBERT OATLETT AND ROBERT ATHELSTAN MARR, OF LEXINGTON, VIRGINIA, WILLIAM GEORGE MATHEWS, OF CLIFTON FORGE, VIRGINIA, AND JAMES EASLEY EDMUNDS. DON PETERS HALSEY, AND JAMES WIL- LIAM GEROW, OF LYNOHBURG, VIRGINIA.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 31., 1905.

Application filed July 31, 1905. Serial No. 272,024.

1'0 ad whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, J OI-IN P. BIRMINGHAM, a citizen of the United States, residing at Lexington, in the county of Rockbridge and State 5 ofVirginia, have invented new and useful Improvements in Automatic Emergency Air- Brake-Operating Devices for Railways, of which the following is a specification.

My present invention relates to an im IO proved automatic emergency airbrakeoper ating device for railways and is in the nature of an improvement upon the Letters Patent granted to me upon the 13th day of October, 1903, NO. 741,299.

15 In the prior patented device referred to a contact-shoe is suspended from a lever pivoted to the car-truck, said shoe being disposed directly above the tread of the rail, and the long end of the said lever has a link connection with a valve in the air-brake system, the latter being carried by the car-body, the construction and arrangement of the several parts being such that should a car having the said device applied thereto leave the track for any cause the said shoe would come into contact with the rail or with the sleepers or road-bed, and thus operate the valve of the air-brake through the lever and link, which is in connection therewith. In 0 practice the said prior patented device has not proven itself to be entirely satisfactory, for the reason that inasmuch as the air-brake pipes are always carried by the car-body and the contact-shoes and operating-levers 3 5 are mounted upon the car-truck and inasmuch as there is always a relative sidewise and up-and-down movement between the car-body and its truck it will be apparent that with the link connection between the 0 valve and operating-lever, as heretofore arranged, the air-brakes would often become set prematurely, because the said link connection would not permit of this relative movement between the car-body and its 5 truck without causing an operation of the link and valve and a consequent setting of the brakes. Otherwise the general type of apparatus shown and described in my beforementioned patent is satisfactory, since it is simple in construction, cheap to manufacture, and easily applied to any of the various makes of cars now in general use.

The prime object of the present invention, then, is to overcome the known objections and defects in my prior patented device and 5 5 to provide a connection between the operating-lever and air-brake valve that will permit the car-body to move sidewise and up and down relatively to the truck during ordinary running conditions without in any manner affecting the air-brake valve.

Briefly and generally stated, the invention comprises a vertically-moving rod having a contact-shoe at its lower end normally held above the tread of the rail, said rod being mounted to slide in bearings carried by the car-truck, a pivoted lever having a pivotal connection at one end with said rod, an airbrake pipe carried by the car-body and having a valve in a branch thereof, and a flexible 7o connection between said valve and the free end of said lever.

In order to enable others skilled in the art to make, use, and understand my said invention, I will now proceed to describe the same 7 in detail, reference being had for this purpose to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure l is a cross-section through a portion of a car equipped with my improved apparatus, and Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the apparatus shown detached.

Referring to the drawings, the referencenumeral 1 designates the floor of the carbody, 2 the truck, 3 the wheels, and 4 the track-rails, all of the usual well-known con struction.

Secured in any suitable manner to the carbody below the floor thereof is the longitudinally-extending air-brake pipe 5, having a branch 6, in which is a turning plug or valve 7, having an operating-arm 8 fixed to the stem thereof. It will be understood that the air-brake employed is of that type which will operate upon a reduction of air-pressure in the system, and it will be apparent, there- 5 fore, that whenever the valve 7 is turned to open the branch 6 a reduction of air-pressure will take place and the brakes will be immediately set. The means for operating the said valve upon a derailment of the car hav- I00 ing one of my improved devices applied thereto will n ow be described.

The reference-numeral 9 designates a plate suitably bolted to the car-truck 2, said plate carrying vertically-aimed bearings 10 and a downwardly-extending strap 12, for a purpose presently to be made apparent. A vertically-movable rod or bar 13 is mounted to slide in the bearings 10 on the plate 9, said rod or bar having at its lower end a shoe 14, that is normally held slightly above and out of contact with the tread of the rail 4. This shoe 14 is preferably formed by giving the lower end of the rod or bar 13 a substantially triangular formation, as shown in the drawings, and arranging the said triangle so that one member thereof will be disposed transversely with respect to the rail. The shoe 14 is normally held elevated above the tread of the rail 4 by means of a pin 15, extending transversely through the rod or bar 13, said pin resting upon the upper face of one of the bearings 10, as shown.

The upper end of the rod or bar 13 is bifurcated, as at 16, and has a pivot-pin 17,which passes through an elongated slot 18, formed in the end of a lever-arm 19, pivoted at 20 to the strap 12 and plate 9. The pin-and-slot connection referred to is provided in order to allow for the necessary play requiredbetween the vertically-moving rod or bar and the lever-arm during operation.

In order to provide for an. operation of the valve 7 in the branch 6 of the air-brake pipe whenever the lever-arm 19 is properly rocked on its pivot and. at the same time provide for the various lateral and vertical movements of the car-body relatively to the truck without affecting the normal position of the valve 7, I provide a flexible connection 21 between the free end of the lever-arm 19 and the arm 8 on the valve. This flexible connection I prefer to make in the form of a chain, as shown, although it will be apparent that I may employ a rope or a cable. The connec tion must, however, be a flexible one in order that the car-body will be free to move laterally relatively to the truck, as when rounding curves, or may move vertically, incident to variation in leads, without affecting the position of the valve under ordinary running conditions.

The operation of the device may be briefly stated as follows: In case the wheels of a car or locomotive should leave the rails the shoe 13 would strike the tread of the rail or the road-bed and force the vertically-movin g rod or bar upward. This would rock the leverarm 19 on its pivot and impart a downward pull upon the chain 2]., which in turn would operate the valve 7 to open the train-pipe through the branch 6, whereby the brakes would immediately be applied and the train stopped before any appreciable damage could be done.

The device herein described may be applied to either or both sides of a car or locomotive, and, as will be understood, the same will operate whether the car is going forward or backward.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. An automatic fluid-pressure brake-applying apparatus, comprising in combination with the car-body and its truck having movements relatively to each other, of a fluid-pres sure-supply pipe carried by the car-body and having a valved branch open to the atmosphere, a vertically-movable rod carried by the car-truck and having a shoe at its lower end, a pivoted lever-arm also carried by the car-truck and having a connection with said rod, and a flexible connection between the end of the lever-arm and an operating-arm carried by the valve in the branch of the fluid-pressure-supply pipe.

2. An automatic fluid-pressure brake-applying apparatus, comprising in combination with the car-body and its truck having movements relatively to each other, of a fluid-pressure-supply pipe carried by the car-body and having a valved branch open to the atmosphere, a vertically disposed rod slidably mounted on the car-truck and having its lower end bent in triangular form to provide a shoe adapted to extend transversely of a track rail, a vertically-movable lever-arm pivoted to the car-truck and having a connection with the upper end of the said rod, and a chain connection between the free end of said lever-arm and an arm on the valve in the said branch of the fluid-pressure-supply pipe, substantially as described. 4

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

I JOHN P. BIRMINGHAM.

Witnesses:

H. C. VVIsE, B. EsTEs VAUGHAN. 

